Posted: 6/5/02

Unearned runs earn FL early exit

Berk Brown
Sports Editor

Elk River may not have earned a Section 7AAA win over Forest Lake last week, but the Elks got it anyways.

Top-seeded Forest Lake was its own worse enemy on Thursday, May 30, allowing a pair of unearned runs and leaving eight runners on in the final four innings of a 5-4 loss in the 7AAA south sub-section.

The loss ended Forest Lakeís season at 13-7 while No. 4-seed Elk River advanced to the 7AAA final four with a record of 12-10.

ìWe had a lot of mental mistakes today and three or four errors that cost us,î Forest Lake coach Brian Raabe said. ìThose little things cost us, but thatís baseball.

ìOur pitching was good enough to win today, there were just a lot of unearned runs. Our pitching was good enough to go (to the final four), but we had some tough things happen. You take those things away, and we win the game.î

Forest Lake nearly overcame all its mistakes with a rally in the bottom of the seventh.

Trailing 5-1, Pete Storm started the Rangersí final at-bat with a single to center. A single to right by Alex Johnson moved Storm to second and a single up the middle by Doug Lange scored Storm to cut the Elksí lead to 5-2.

Joe Lawrence grounded out to third base against Elk River relief pitcher Matt Lee before Lee walked Steve Carlisle on four pitches to load the bases.

Elk River then brought in its third pitcher of the inning ñÝChad Nelson ñÝto face Forest Lakeís Chris Parent.

Parent hit a chopper over the Elk River third basemanís head, plating Johnson and pulling Forest Lake within 5-3.

Lance Oversonís deep sacrifice fly to right-center scored Lange to cut the margin to 5-4, but Nelson got the Rangersí Mark Miron to pop out to the catcher to end the game.

Raabe commended his team for fighting until the very end.

ìGive the kids a lot of credit,î he said. ìThey battled back when they could have easily folded.î
Elk River coach Tim Nelson said he felt the Elks were lucky to leave town with a victory.

ìWeíre fortunate to be able to get out of here with a win,î he said. ìI was never comfortable with the lead. We dodged some bullets.î

Elk River fired its most damaging bullet in the top half of the seventh inning.

Leading 4-1, Ben Gustafson led off the top of the seventh by hitting a fly ball which was dropped by the Rangers in left field.

After a sacrifice bunt moved pinch-runner Nelson to second and a deep fly out to center got him to third, Adam Soltis lined a single to right just over a leaping Forest Lake second baseman Karl Young, scoring Elk Riverís fifth run, which proved to be the game-winner.

Forest Lake took an early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second when Lawrence singled and went to second on a walk by Carlisle. Parent then hit a double-play ball to short which turned into an error to score Lawrence.

Parent, the starting pitcher for Forest Lake, made the 1-0 lead stand until the fourth when the Elks scored four times.

Soltis started the inning with a walk for Elk River and Joe Macieji followed with a single to right for the Elksí first hit of the game.

Matt Johnson, however, got Elk River its second hit and first two runs when he followed with a triple, putting the Elks up 2-1.

Raabe immediately went to relief pitcher Luke Hagman, who gave-up a RBI single to Jason Juntunen before getting a ground out and fly out, which allowed Juntunen to move to third.

Hagman then struck out Elk Riverís Lee, but a dropped third strike and errant throw to first base allowed Lee to reach and Elk River to score another run and move ahead 4-1.

Forest Lake appeared poised to answer in the bottom of the fourth as the Rangers loaded the bases with one out thanks to a double by Carlisle, single by Parent and walk by Overson.

Forest Lake, however, left the bases loaded without scoring a run and left a single runner on in the fifth on two on in the sixth before finally breaking through in the seventh.

Raabe said although the season ended much sooner than it should have, he still considers himself fortunate to have had a good season.

ìThe guys were outstanding to coach, but more than baseball players, theyíre outstanding young men and that will take 100 percent of them further than being a great ball player,î Raabe said.

He also praised the work of pitching coach Tal Gravell, who helped produce a consistently strong pitching staff.

ìHe paid huge dividends for us,î Raabe said.

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